CAMPAIGN 2012

GOP Candidate Tax Rates: Perry in the Middle at 27 Percent

All five contenders are wealthy, but they pay taxes at widely different rates

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney surrounded by his family points towards supporters at the Romney for President New Hampshire primary night victory party at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

There are no paupers among the Republican presidential candidates — just varying degrees of what many voters would consider immense wealth.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, perhaps the "poorest" among the lot, reported just $217,447 in adjusted gross income on his 2010 tax returns, of which he paid $51,000 in federal income taxes.

In 2010 on average, Perry paid a tax rate of 27 percent, according to Bob Martin, a Houston accountant who has previously analyzed the candidate’s tax returns in conjunction with the publication, the Texas Tribune. That’s much higher than Mitt Romney’s self-reported 15 percent rate, but lower than the 31 percent rate that Newt Gingrich has estimated he pays.

Perry’s income pales in comparison to that of Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and investment banker, who made roughly $374,327 in speaking fees alone last year — an amount Romney described Tuesday as “not very much” money. Maybe not for him, but it is for the average American, whose median income for 2010 was $49,445, according to the Census Bureau.

So far, Perry remains the only presidential candidate to release his tax returns, a ritual he does annually as governor. Following political pressure and jabs during Monday night’s candidates’ debate, Romney said he would release his own returns for 2011 in time for April’s tax-filing season.

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Now, all of the candidates are coming under pressure to release their tax returns. Gingrich, the former House speaker, said on Wednesday that he pays a rate of about 31 percent on his income, although he said he didn’t know how much he earned annually as a business consultant in Washington since leaving Congress in 1998. The mystery should be resolved at least in part on Thursday, when Gingrich promised to release his 2010 tax return.

The public has had only glimpses of the income, wages, investment portfolios, and real estate holdings of the other Republican candidates.

Front-runner Romney acknowledged on Tuesday that he pays about 15 percent of his income in taxes, a consequence of earning most of his money from investments, which are taxed at a rate of 15 percent. Romney’s net worth, gleaned from his years at the private-equity firm he ran, Bain Capital, is estimated to be as high as $250 million.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is the 105th wealthiest person among the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. His 2010 congressional financial-disclosure form placed his total net worth between $1.3 million and $3.3 million, with 58 percent of his assets invested in mining and 25 percent in real estate. Members of Congress are required to report only ranges of income, not precise amounts.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania was certainly poorer than Paul back in 2006 when he took home a congressional paycheck. Then, according to financial disclosure forms, he had a net worth in the ballpark of $522,000 to $1.8 million and was invested heavily in real estate, thanks to three mortgages.

In the last year and a half, however, his wealth ballooned. In 2010, he earned more than $1 million on income from rental properties, consulting gigs, and a stint on the corporate board of United Health Services, according to the financial disclosure form he filed as part of his candidacy for president.

Asked by reporters on Wednesday what tax rate he pays, Santorum said he didn’t know, but that he’s confident it’s higher than the 15 percent Romney pays. “I have to go back and look. I do my own taxes, but I haven’t looked at them in quite a while, thank God, so I don’t know what my effective rate of tax is. But I’m fairly confident it’s a lot higher that 15 percent.”

He said he had not released his tax returns publicly but that, “when I get home I’ll be happy to do that. “

The full extent of the candidates’ wealth won’t become fully known until they release their tax returns. The documents will help illuminate not only their income, but the types of investments the candidates have, the amount of money they’ve put into the stock market, along with the income they’ve made from it, and the charities they donate to. Then, voters can decide who’s in touch with the middle-class experience, at least financially, or -- more worrisome to the candidates -- who is perceived as too rich to understand.